Dear Friends,

Our Theme for the ISM Retreat Month is:

Today I climbed all the stairs of the Pisa Tower – up and back again! These stairs represent the stepping stairs to my journey of healing which started back in January with me struggling to climb the tube station stairs. So, I must have done many things right this time! One thing that I have been striving constantly to do is to stay positive. Even when I was presented with my initial diagnosis I was enacting one of my favourite optimist/pessimist jokes^* by saying that it could have been worse. Which was no doubt the case! One of the ways I was able to stay positive is to find something positive in each occurrence. For example, I quickly learned where the lifts at tube stations are located!

Now it is time for me to decide whether I am half-healed or half-sick, and act accordingly. The thing is, some seem to believe that the only way for me to be careful is to be frightened, so they stress the potential dangers of my condition. Sure, I tend to be biased to the other side, that is, underestimate the dangers and naively trust it will all be gone, however, I know how to be objective AND positive at the same time!

Of course, the greatest advantage of being positive is that when I am positive, then even physically – like in climbing stairs – I can do much more and much easier! Which must certainly be helping the healing process!

^*The joke in case you have not heard it is: The pessimist said: "It just cannot get any worse!"; the optimist: "Ah! It can, it can!" lol

Please enjoy Lady Elizabeth's wise and light sharing!

With all my love
(BH)
Milen

~~~

Dear Friends,

Happy Month! Happy April!

I am currently winging my way across the continents from Bali to Cape Town! What a wonder-full country Bali is, and its warm and gentle people are. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be a visitor there and to enjoy what it has to offer, especially with special friends.

Once there I focused a lot on the healing qualities of the area in which I spent most of the time. After 5 weeks in Ubud I felt like a hobbit emerging from my safe and contained hobbit village! Lol!

On leaving Ubud after those 5 healing weeks I felt compelled to explore something medical with my close friend and colleague who has been studying “all things medical beyond the face value” since he met Théun many years ago now.

We explored the word “diagnosis” because I wanted to know why it is such a socially conditioned word. People hear the word “diagnosis” and/or receive a diagnosis and in many cases, they tend to freeze, feel help-less, react as if it’s a death sentence. Or they go into denial… until the next time. Or they refuse that diagnosis and then get 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th diagnoses until they get one they can live with – and then it's possibly more tests and medication, which ofttimes causes side effects and then its more medications to deal with those side effects and so on.

So where does one place the focus?

For starters for me it was looking at the etymology of the word “diagnosis”! 😉

Diagnosis, in summary, means “knowledge”, coming from the Greek “diu” – apart – and “gignōskein“ know, recognise. To discern.

In the past 3 months, what started for me as an errant kneecap proceeded to my being “diagnosed” by one too many “experts”, each with their own take of what I should do. And in a few instances this word “diagnosis” has come loaded with drama and “remedies”.

"..we always have a choice as to where we place the focus. We can place the focus on being a victim; or we can place the focus on the impeccability of the warrior’s spirit. However, we cannot learn the way of the warrior if we insist on seeing ourselves as victims, or if we continue to believe that we are powerless in the face of the odds against us.”

Having taken the quiet space in Ubud to reflect on what is best for me, I am choosing to place the focus on the new knowledge that is at my disposal. My time in Bali has been hugely instrumental in finding the gratitude available to me for the new knowledge and personal power to be gained. 😀

“All our challenges in life are there so that we may learn the true value of the priceless gift of life and, in doing so, also learn what it is to take charge of the huge responsibility inherent within knowledge. This is true no matter whether we are the so-called victors or victims. Therefore, if we wish to acquire the impeccability of the warrior’s spirit, we cannot afford to take our circumstances in life at face value, but must strive instead to find the gifts of power they bring us."

Have fun with our theme this month, my friends!

With all my love and gentle-ness,
(BH)s
Elizabeth